I’ve had carpet installed in several houses I’ve owned and have learned the hard way: if it is a house you will be keeping and living in for any length of time, don’t scrimp on the quality of the carpet or installation.
This last go-round we bought the highest quality carpet we could find and have not been sorry…it is holding up very very well.
The thing that I want to shout to the world, though, is to make SURE your installers use a power stretcher to install the carpet…ask them before they install the carpet and I would suggest that you write right on the sales contract “Carpet to be installed using a power stretcher”.
Every time we had a carpet installed with a knee kicker, we were very sorry in 12 to 24 months. It is a dumb, dumb way to install carpets. Within two years, we had to have the carpets stretched at over $100 each time they came out (all rooms didn’t get carpet wrinkles at the same time, so we had to call them out several times and move the furniture out of the room needing stretching).
We’ve been very happy with the salesmen and installers from A1 Factory Direct on Rancheros Road which is where we bought this last time – and they use power stretchers! Probably not the cheapest, but in my opinion the best.
And no, I don’t personally know any of them nor do I have any ownership or financial interest in the store. I’m just a customer of theirs.
